Flag Counter since 20091011

Hit Count Since 20110428

Archive for April, 2011

Meanwhile, the big story of yesterday (or, at least what would have been the big story had it happened in Waukesha County instead of Dane County) was the separation of 97 ballots from a ballot bag in the city of Verona. Summarizing The CapTimes’ story, the discrepancy came about when the Dane County canvassing board discovered, while recounting ballots cast in the city of Verona, there were over 90 fewer ballots present than the number that had been run through the voting machines on Election Day. A search ensued, and the ballots, rubber-banded together, turned up in the office of the Verona city clerk. Despite the loss of the chain of custody on the ballots, precinct stamps and initials established their legitimacy and they were recounted. The once-missing ballots favored Prosser by 30 votes, even though Kloppenburg carried the city of Verona by a pre-recount 2,380-1,204 margin. That irregularity also, according to the CapTimes did not change that pre-recount margin.

On Thursday afternoon official “tabulators” were busily counting ballots from the city of Verona when the votes came up more than 90 short of what the electronic readout from the voting machines said they should. That sent Verona officials on a hunt, and a rubber-banded stack of 97 ballots turned up in the office of Verona City Clerk Judy Masarik.

“There’s a table in the clerk’s office, and there was a binder and some other papers on top of the ballots,” said City Administrator Bill Burns, who found the stack.

The statewide recount, requested by challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg after her narrow loss to incumbent David Prosser, has the potential to change the outcome, so the Verona situation caused much consternation. On election night, all the ballots were supposed to be secured in sealed bags, which were then supposed to be signed by local elections officials. The seals were supposed to remain intact.

Burns found the bundle unbagged. They were bagged and he drove them to Madison. The bag had no signatures or initials.

Let’s be perfectly clear here. In a Democrat county, a bag of votes from a 2-1 Kloppenburg town was 97 votes short of what it should have been. Those 97 votes were found on the Verona city clerk’s desk under some other paperwork. The Verona city clerk’s desk, where the votes were 2-1 in favor of the Democrats’ candidate. And anyone and everyone had access. When they were added in to the full count, the tally came up as it was supposed to. But, without them, the tally would have pushed the tally 30 votes in the Democrats’ candidate’s favor.

Was it merely a mistake where people in a Democrat stronghold accidentally violated procedures designed to prevent vote fraud? Or was there something more illegal and fraudulent going on? Of course, since it was in a Democrat stronghold and the “mistake” would have favored the Democrat, there won’t be any serious lamestream media coverage or digging. Had the roles been reversed and this happened in Waukesha County, the media and Democrats and Unions (but I unnecessarily repeat myself redundantly), would be all over this like stink on a turd. But that’s different. It doesn’t fit Teh Narrative.

Debra J Saunders at the San Fransisco Chronicle has the blow-by-blow account. And she’s rather forceful. Due to copyright laws, I cannot quote the entire article, but I strongly urge you to read the whole thing.

“The San Francisco Chronicle violated the coverage rules that they — and every other media outlet — agreed to as part of joining the press pool for that event. If they thought the rules were too restrictive they should have raised that at the beginning. However, no reporters have been banned from covering future presidential events and the White House of course would have no problem including any reporter who follows the rules in pool-only events.”

Here is editor Ward Bushee’s response.

Sadly, we expected the White House to respond in this manner based on our experiences yesterday. It is not a truthful response. It follows a day of off-the-record exchanges required by key people in the White House communications office who told us it would remove our reporter, then threatened retaliation to Chronicle and Hearst reporters if we reported on the ban, and then recanted to say our reporter might not be removed afterall.

The Chronicle’s report is accurate.

If the White House has indeed decided not to ban our reporter, we would like an on-the-record notice that she will remain the San Francisco print pool reporter.

…
I’m writing this in protest of the White House’s “not true” claim. Do not believe it.

I can only assume that Obama staffers employed these tactics to try to push The Chronicle to agree to not cover events that happen in front of hundreds of people because bullying has worked well with other media in the past. The good news: We at the Chronicle are not lap dogs.

With Obama’s history, such as the tongue-lashing he gave a Texas reporter for pushing the issue and Obama’s attempt to freeze out FOX News because FOX News is not sycophantic, I trust Debra J Saunders, Carla Marinucci, Ward Bushee and Phil Bronstein’s corroborating stories long before I’d ever trust the known press bully Barack Obama or any of his team.

So, yes, the Obama White House banned Marinucci for posting a video of a radical left-wing protest against him, then threatened to retaliate against Chronicle and Hearst reporters if they actually did their job and report that Marinucci was banned for posting a video, then lied about it when this attempted STATE CONTROL OF MEDIA got reported. And maybe backed away from the ban as the fertilizer storm got rolling.

Perhaps if Obama keeps this up, more of the lamestream media will actually start reporting the truth about what the Obama team are actually doing and saying. I can hope, can’t I?
___________Cross-Post

King & Spalding buckled under to Left-Wing pressure and dropped the US House of Representatives because the US House deigned to defend DOMA. So the Virginia AG fired King & Spalding, sending them a blistering letter.

King & Spalding’s willingness to drop a client, the U.S. House of Representatives, in connection with the lawsuit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was such an obsequious act of weakness that I feel compelled to end your legal association with Virginia so that there is no chance that one of my legal clients will be put in the embarrassing and difficult situation like the client you walked away from, the House of Representatives.

Virginia does not shy away from hiring outside counsel because they may have ongoing professional relationships with people or entities, or on behalf of causes that I, or my office, or Virginia as a while may not support. But it is crucial for us to be able to trust and rely on the fact that our outside counsel will not desert Virginia due to pressure by an outside group or groups.

Virginia seeks firms of commitment, courage, strength and toughness, and unfortunately, what the world has learned of King & Spalding, is that your firm utterly lacks such qualities.

That’s gonna leave a mark. As a certain TV & music character once said to her brother:

By the way, you know how Scott Walker is THE BIGGEST NAZI EVER for taking away teachers’ collective bargaining “rights”? Well, check out this news from the Massachusetts House of Representatives in today’s Boston Globe:

House votes to restrict unions

House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.

The 111-to-42 vote followed tougher measures to broadly eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in Ohio, Wisconsin, and other states. But unlike those efforts, the push in Massachusetts was led by Democrats who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers’ rights.

Wow, 111 Hitlers. The protesters are gonna need a lot more Magic Markers to draw all those mustaches. Ha ha, just kidding. Can’t you read? The lawmakers are Democrats. [emphasis in the original]

Massachusetts House votes to restrict Public Employee Union bargaining rights by more than a 5-to-2 margin. These weren’t “evil” purple-state Conservative Republicans. These weren’t even New England RINOs. Well, likely there were New England RINOs in the mix. But these were “good” Massachusetts Democrats who made this decision. Were they voting to destroy Unions? Or, perhaps, were they making their decision based on budgetary needs, such as shrinking government costs?
___________Cross-Post

The hip, transparent and social media-loving Obama administration is showing its analog roots. And maybe even some hypocrisy highlights.

White House officials have banished one of the best political reporters in the country from the approved pool of journalists covering presidential visits to the Bay Area for using now-standard multimedia tools to gather the news.

The Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci – who, like many contemporary reporters, has a phone with video capabilities on her at all times – pulled out a small video camera last week and shot some protesters interrupting an Obama fundraiser at the St. Regis Hotel.
…
Other sources confirmed that Carla was vanquished, including Chronicle editor Ward Bushee, who said he was “informed that Carla was removed as a pool reporter.” Which shouldn’t be a secret in any case because it’s a fact that affects the newsgathering of our largest regional paper (and sfgate)and how local citizens get their information.

What’s worse: more than a few journalists familiar with this story are aware of some implied threats from the White House of additional and wider punishment if Carla’s spanking became public. Really? That’s a heavy hand usually reserved for places other than the land of the free.

The old Soviet saying fits well here: There is no Pravda in Izvestia and there is no Izvestia in Pravda. Basically, this is “Since you broadcast the protest, you are no longer allowed to be here to do any more reporting.” The White House doesn’t want the truth to have news or the news to have truth. The King of Transparency is once again opaque.

We can’t have our pool reporters actually reporting on a protest surrounding Obama now, can we? We can’t let the people know American tanks actually are in Baghdad, can we? We can’t let the people know we’re running people over with our tanks in Tianenmen Square, can we?

But it gets better. Or worse. I can’t decide.

From the internal link above:

The progressive group protested what they called the inhumane treatment of Pvt. Bradley Manning in the Wikileaks case. Their protest song – which included lyrics: “We paid our dues..where’s our change?” – was sung in its entirety for Obama, who thanked them at the end of the a capella performance.

Outside, the group said that they were progressives who had worked for Obama and voted for him in 2008, but who were disappointed not only with Manning’s treatment, but with Obama’s policies on war as well.
…
Pitcairn took off her outer shirt to reveal a tee shirt in support of Manning. Then, she stood up and announced she was leaving.
…
Protesters including UC Santa Cruz art professor Elizabeth Stephens, songwriter Craig Casey, activist Jane Sullivan of Santa Cruz, writer Greg Archer, and David Schiller of Berkeley, as well as organizers from Tony’s Circus, all Bay Area locals.

This was a radical left-wing protest against Obama. Why would a Leftist President who should be trying to triangulate and appear moderate (since he’s lost the middle) ban a reporter who publishes video of a radical left-wing group protesting him? It just isn’t logical. Obama should be welcoming that coverage, not fighting to prevent further outbreaks of “news” in reporting. The most tranparent President ever? I’ve seen more transparency in an X-Ray room lead-lined apron.

Oh, and one other thing:

What’s worse: more than a few journalists familiar with this story are aware of some implied threats from the White House of additional and wider punishment if Carla’s spanking became public.

That’s the sort of intimidation and fear tactic predators and organized crime uses. “If you tell anyone, I’ll be forced to kill them and it’ll be all your fault.”

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin is covering the story but missed where the protesters were radical Leftists.
_______________Cross-post

Well, government-sponsored National Public Radio — erstwhile guardians of civility — apparently found the death-threat misdirection amusing. A segment last Friday on NPR’s Morning Edition made light of the plight of Iowa businessman Dutch Koch — no relation to libertarian businessmen Charles and David Koch.

I am writing to raise deep concerns about a Morning Edition segment that aired on April 22 and apparently made light of death threats that had been leveled at gentleman in Iowa but that had been intended for our company.
…
But there is nothing even remotely funny about a person’s life being threatened and NPR ought to be ashamed that simple fact of decency has to be pointed out.
…
What is especially perplexing is that NPR has stated many times in recent months that it has a “goal of promoting a civil conversation” and has often reported on calls from national leaders for a “new civility” in public discourse. So I would like to ask for some formal explanation of how NPR could have allowed a segment on this subject to be presented on the air in this fashion?

Strange how the Left demand the Right play by Marquis de Queensbury rules while allowing the Left to play by no-holds-barred street-fighting rules. Absolutely hypocritical of the Left, actually. Also interesting how the Left demand that even we on the Right need to pay to keep Left-wing NPR on the air to spout its Leftist bile.

A year ago, I had said I was moving my site elsewhere, but that fell through due to technical difficulties. I have still been posting articles over at Common Sense Political Thought this entire time, as I had been cross-posting from this site previously. I believe now may be a good time to restart this blogsite.